1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an authoring system for computerized messages such as electronic mail, and specifically to an authoring system for computerized messages that can create messages containing recipient-specific content such that all recipients do not receive the identical version of the message.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current computerized messaging systems provide for the ability to send a computerized message to more than one recipient. Such systems are limited, however, in that each recipient receives the identical message. This is inconvenient, for example, in a situation where it is desired to send a private comment to some but not all of the recipients.
For example, in an electronic mail ("E-mail") messaging system, the sender authors a text message, with or without attachments, that can be sent to recipients in any of three categories: a "To:" category, a "cc:" category, and a "bcc:" category. As is known, the "To:" category is for the directly-intended recipient or recipients, the "cc:" category is for courtesy-copy recipients who are included for information, and the "bcc:" category is for blind-courtesy-copy recipients who are intended to receive the message without other recipients being aware of their receipt. However, even with the above addressing categories, what is received by each recipient is the entire text of the message and all attachments. Thus, each recipient receives the identical message.
In some situations, the sender wishes to forward some portions of a message only to certain recipients and not to others. For example, a sender may desire to include private comments in the E-mail message, with the private comments being readable only by bcc recipients. However, since current E-mail systems send the identical message to each and every recipient, it is necessary for the sender to create two different E-mail messages, and to select which message is to be sent to which recipient. This arrangement is cumbersome and time-consuming, and inevitably leads to errors.